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Courtesy of A&E

Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are at the center of two television experiments that Meron calls a “wonderful storm of events.” First up is tonight’s live broadcast of The Sound of Music on NBC that has Carrie Underwood starring as Maria and True Blood’s Stephen Moyer trading in his fangs and his Civil War accent to play Captain von Trapp. The second is the two-part drama Bonnie & Clyde starring Emile Hirsch and The Borgias’ Holliday Grainger.

A drama about outlaw Texas lovebirds Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow doesn’t sound so experimental, except for the fact that it is premiering simultaneously on not one but three networks this weekend. Zadan and Meron first sold the project to The History Channel, and when Lifetime execs read the script, they called the producers and said they wanted in as well. As soon as they started shooting, execs at A&E (owner of Lifetime and History) saw some early footage and decided they wanted a piece of the pie as well.

The result is a two-part, four-hour Bonnie & Clyde. It's a different take on the true story of the infamous bank robbers than the one in the Oscar winning 1967 feature version of the tale that starred Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. In this new version (directed by Bruce Beresford and written by Joe Batteer and John Rice), Bonnie and Clyde are younger, and they’re depicted as two so-so bank robbers who – like a Kardashian or the Bling Ring kids – wanted more than anything to become famous. The tagline is, “He held the gun. She called the shots.” The tagline for the original was, “They’re young, they’re in love, and they kill people.”

They've been immortalized in film, on television, and in song (by Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot).“Think about how long it has been since Bonnie and Clyde went on their rampage, and we’re still talking about them,” Meron says. “A lot of it has to do with the sexy, romantic part of their story.”

I spoke to the producers about the path to premiering on three networks, the changing landscape of television, and the enduring appeal of Bonnie and Clyde.

Forbes: Most producers deal with notes and mandates from one network, but you guys were dealing with three. Did that change the development or production process at all? Were you getting script notes from three networks?

Zadan: We were aware that Nancy Debuc was running all those networks and she was looking for a way to tie all those networks together but there hadn’t been anything that lent itself to all three networks. The script didn’t change at all when they added networks. They decided that it was a piece that would appeal to the audiences at each network.

Meron: Our primary contacts were with the Lifetime Network. They were in charge of the physical production. Certainly for History it has the historical reference and for Lifetime it has this fascinating female who is part of a romantic duo, and for A&E - the big umbrella - it has everything.

Forbes: Arthur Penn’s 1967 Bonnie and Clyde with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway is an Oscar winner and a classic, so did you guys ever worry about negative attention from fans of that film?

Zadan: No one is going to say that anything should be taken away from the original movie, because the original movie is a masterpiece of filmmaking. No one is looking to replace that movie, but that was a long time ago. There’s a whole new generation who know the names Bonnie and Clyde but they don’t know the story. Also there’s only so much you can tell in a two-hour movie, but when you have four hours you can really go into detail.

Forbes: What really appealed to you about the story, and what do you think will resonate with audiences in 2013?

Zadan: One of the things that appealed to us the most was the fact that Bonnie Parker was a really interesting character in that she wanted to be famous at all costs. She tried to be a singer, and she never made it. She applied to all the movie studios to be an actress and was rejected. She tried everything and she failed at everything. She just had this incredible ambition about wanting to be a star and finally she found a way to get on the front page of the newspapers. You don’t want to do a period piece and have people ask how it’s relevant to their lives today. We found an “in,” and the in was the fact that to us, Bonnie Parker was the first reality star. She’s somebody that had absolutely no talent and no ability and she became a celebrity. When they teamed up they were not good bank robbers. They just were passionate about what they were doing because of the fame. If you look at what reality television has become, how many people in reality have no gift whatsoever, but they’re big stars, based on nothing. We can name a long list of those people but we know who they are.

Meron: When the writers went into the pitch about the economic times and the bad economy forcing people to do things they normally wouldn’t do, it seemed to be something very interesting. Plus the fact of having Bonnie wanting to be a star against all odds – the combination of those two things made us think there was something there that an audience might be able to relate to.

Forbes: How did the casting come about?

Zadan: In terms of Emile Hirsch it was interesting because when we read the first draft we just pictured him in that role. We kept saying it, and one day one of his agents called and said, “We hear you’re going around saying Emile Hirsch is the perfect prototype for the role – are you going to offer it to him?” We sent him the script and he immediately said he wanted to do it. In terms of Bonnie we wanted to find somebody new and exciting. We had been big fans of The Borgias and we had seen Holliday Grainger and thought she was really special. She’s sort of like the new Cate Blanchett. She put herself on tape and auditioned and we just thought she was the one. Then we were lucky enough to attract William Hurt and Holly Hunter.